Sierra Club to beverage industry: Why the holdup?

Bottle law proponents call industry's bluff on delay in labeling and redemption centers

News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 27th, 2004
CONTACT: Jeff Mikulina 226-4987

STATE CAPITOL - The Sierra Club, Hawai‘i Chapter and other recycling advocates are calling on the legislature to dismiss industry's call for a delay to the beverage container deposit law, or bottle bill, which is scheduled to go into effect on January 1st, 2005. The beverage industry and various retailers-who were strongly opposed to the measure when it passed in 2002-are saying that they will be unable to label the beverage containers in time. But a trip to the grocery store tells another story, where a number of beverages are available in bottles that have already been labeled with the "HI 5¢" designation.
"Some responsible bottlers have already begun to comply with the requirements of the bottle law-8 months ahead of schedule," said Jeff Mikulina, Director of the Sierra Club, Hawai‘i Chapter. "We look forward to implementation of this highly effective tool to vastly increase the recycling and reduce the littering of the 75,000 bottles and cans that we use in Hawai‘i every hour."

The beverage industry, however, is set on a single mission: kill the bottle law. With new support for defeating the law in the Governor's office, they are trying to cast doubt on the law's efficacy and attempting to convince the legislature that the law cannot be implemented by next January-although they had two and half years to prepare.

"It is patently obvious that the industry's call for a delay has nothing to do with making the recycling law work better and everything to do with killing the recycling law," said Mikulina.

"The beverage industry's goal is to erode public support and present the program as ineffectual and confusing," said Suzanne Jones, Recycling Coordinator for the City & County of Honolulu. "They continue to downplay the benefits and overplay the costs for a system which has been operating very successfully in 10 other states for more than 20 years-30 years in Oregon."

Opponents to the recycling law also claim that the redemption centers for the used containers and the recycling infrastructure will not be in place by the January 1st start date. But recycling companies disagree, having already invested heavily to help ensure the program's success. Reynolds Recycling, Inc., is one of those companies.

"We anticipate having 25 to 30 convenient redemption centers established by year end," said Terry Telfer, President of Reynolds Recycling Inc. "Many of the dozen or so other recyclers state wide are also gearing up for expanded volumes and some will be adding additional redemption centers. Most, if not all, will be hiring new employees to handle the increase in the recycling volumes."
Gary Gill, former Deputy Director for the Department of Health for Environmental Health Management, said he was proud of the Cayetano Administration and the 2002 Legislature for working together to pass such monumental environmental legislation.

"The Bottle Bill had overwhelming support from the Governor, the Legislature, each county and the voters," said Gill. "It is rare to see so many agree on the need for any law. Only the bottling industry is stubbornly opposed to this law and rather than make the simple changes to comply, they continue to undermine the public will.

"I hope we do not need to remind the Legislature that they must represent the public interest, not special interests," added Gill. "No delay is needed and no delay should be granted."

Why do we need the bottle law to start on time?

The Landfill can't wait.
O‘ahu-and other islands-are in the midst of a sold waste struggle. The problem of landfill siting on O‘ahu has pitted community against community, and nobody wants a landfill in their backyard. But with 75,000 bottles and cans being discarded statewide every hour (800 million annually), the bottle law hopes to make a dent in the amount of opala going into our island landfills. It is estimated that beverage containers covered under Hawaii's law comprise 4.4% of the municipal solid waste stream. ("Municipal Solid Waste in the United States: 2000 Facts and Figures." U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, June 2002, table 19.) A decision on a new landfill location for O‘ahu must be made by the Council before December 31st, 2004. January 1st can't come soon enough for new tools to reduce trash.

The Landscape can't wait.
Hawaii's tourism economy relies on clean beaches and a beautiful environment. Broken bottles, plastic floating in the ocean, and littered cans mar the image that Hawai‘i hopes to project. By placing a 5-cent "reward" on beverage containers, cans and bottles will be picked up for deposit-and they are less likely to be littered in the first place. In a 1999 statewide study, the Solid Waste Coordinators of Kentucky found that beverage containers and closures made up 52% of roadside litter, as the below figure shows. The same study found that beverage container material made up 42% of litter in state waterways, and an average of 49% of litter at all sites. ("Litter in Kentucky: A View from the Field." Solid Waste Coordinators of Kentucky, May 1999.)

The public can't wait.
Hawai‘i residents support the bottle law as a way to clean up the environment and recycle more. A poll of 500 Hawai‘i households commissioned by the Hawai‘i Department of Health in February, 2002, showed support for the proposed bottle bill at 70%. According to data from states with bottle bills, support for the measure grows stronger after it is implemented. According to a February, 2004, study of 800 New York State residents, eighty-four percent of those surveyed support the existing 25-year old New York bottle-deposit program. Seventy-eight percent of those surveyed agree that "the bottle-deposit program has made our state much cleaner," and 81% agree that "curbside recycling is not enough: we need the bottle-deposit program to control litter." ("Survey of New York Registered Voters Attitudes Toward New York's Bottle Bill and Proposed Reforms." Public Policy Associates, Incorporated, February 2004.) A December 2000 survey of Iowa residents by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found that 92.5% of respondents support their 25 year-old bottle bill. No state bottle law has ever been repealed. Support for the bottle law is as diverse as it is widespread.

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Jeffrey Mikulina
Director, Sierra Club, Hawai'i Chapter
tel: 808.538.6616
www.hi.sierraclub.org
mikulina@lava.net